iOS gamers will be happy to find out that the Tiny Death Star app has been released in the US app store, according to Apple Insider.

Star Wars: Tiny Death Star is a mashup of the now Disney-owned franchise "Star Wars" and elevator simulation strategy game Tiny Tower. Publisher LucasArts initially soft-launched the title in Australia and recently expanded availability to the New Zealand App Store.

Gameplay is nearly identical to Tiny Tower, but instead of a building, players buy, build and manage various levels of the Empire's Death Star. The object of the game is to attract "bitizens," or non-playable characters, provide them with work and housing units, finish tasks to collect coins and build your Death Star from the proceeds. Bitizens include 30 different species from the Star Wars universe.

Before Apple launched the new MacBook Pro with Retina display range we would have whole-heartedly recommended the MacBook Air. However, the addition of the lower priced £1,099 entry-level Retina MacBook Pro means that the Pro laptops are now a much more attractive option. We wonder if the next MacBook Air range will include a lower-cost option too because right now it's tough to justify the prices in comparison to this low priced Retina option.

I've got a Macbook Pro, so I'm somewhat biased. When I went to get a new laptop I had to decide between the Macbook Air and the Macbook Pro. The retina display on the Macbook Pro was what persuaded me.

So far I have no complaints, I'm glad I went with the Macbook Pro.

Sex and Apple's App Store Guidelines

Wired takes a look at the oddly inconsistent behavior by Apple when it comes to sex and the app store.

Reading the App Review guidelines doesn’t clarify much about what makes comics or other media non-compliant. In a section titled “Objectionable Content,” the guidelines state, “Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected,” but offer no further clarification about what is considered objectionable or crude.

The lack of clarity about what is and isn’t allowed in the App Store hasn’t just resulted in seemingly mercurial decisions about submitted content, however; in at least one case, it also affected whether a distributor even attempted to release a comic at all.

Jim Lynch is a technology analyst and online community manager. Jim has written for many leading industry publications over the years.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of InfoWorld, ITworld, CIO.com, IDG Communications, or their parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.